Evolution of the Gate?

19 years ago

I have seen many different gates and according to Yamma's historical explanation sometime last year, If I have gotten it right, is that the gate was initially used as a chicken roost in temples.

Do all gates stem from this utilitarian design with the top header (roof) the lower plank or strut(perch)and the two legs. Is there a signifigance to the tilt of the legs? Are there gates with vertical legs? The simple or minimalist types of gates are very pleasing to me and seem very ballanced, both strightlegged and tapered legged.

I am planning a very large gate for my setting which is a 2/3 acre pond and it needs big size in order to scale the feeling correctly. I fear It's going to be expensive. The gate will be a formal entry / exit into the garden - a passageway from intimacy into a wide open Missouri farm. It will visually exit into wide open space - a very large 100 acre valley, so it has to be big.

paul

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Comments (6)

edzard
19 years ago
Paul,..
why does it have to be 'big'?
if it is small then the valley is feeling larger
If it is large, then the valley feels smaller.
which feelings is the best feeling?

not all gates come from the Torii template, roosting chickens saved from foxes was the translation. Gates have a slightly different background based on the human need for territory, boundary and land markers from earliest on. These were a subtle as a sheaf of grass tied together or an alleyway.
edzard
Cady
19 years ago
I can aver that chickens roost high to stay away from foxes. [see photo] After last year's plethera of predatory foxes and coyotes, I'm tempted to build torii in the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chooks roost high!
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yama
19 years ago
Hi Paul
It was tori. not garden gate.
Edzard explained very well. .................mike
jeepster
Original Author
19 years ago
I had assumed that the customary gate, with the header, that is so common in gardens was an evolution of the Torii.

The reason that I feel that it has to be big is because of the setting. If I am correct, here in Missouri there are no natural lakes due mainly to the karst topography in the south and lack of galcial digging pressure in the north.

As such lakes and ponds are formed by placing an earthen dam @ the mouth of gullies and re-entries at the base of hills. In my situation if you can imagine walking out of the wooded hill and it opens onto a pond that sits slightly above a 100 acre valley, so with the woods and hill to your back you see only the pond and vast openess. In essence this is my main intimidation - it's completely open to crop fields with no trees - nothing to scale it. I am having a hard time trying to get the pond/garden integrated with such vastness. Initially I planted Thujas in the fore ground and mid ground (oposite side of pond) and then I planned on putting more Thujas further out in the valley in order to scale it and give the view some perspective leading to or more like insinuating a vanishing point. If you have seen some of the landscapes in the mediterainian with high terraces overlooking tall narrow cedars as they taper out into the distance - this what I had initially planned. But then I discover J=gardens and now I am moving in that direction.

So I figured the gate would have to be emence in order to scale the space - the gate will be on the oppsite side of the pond and viewed from the hill.

Thanx for the input. I still want a Torii for the chickens - they are droppin like flys.
edzard
19 years ago
Paul,...
I would scale the gate for humans so that they feel comfortable. The vastness is (should be) what they are supposed to feel. That is the heart of the sense of being there.

this seems to go back to compensating for people (large immense gate) so that people should feel more comfortable...
why should they? let them get over it if they must or let them accept nature in its immensity..
not for you to take away, this sense of the immense.

Too large a gate:
-is scaled for giants,
-the greater the expectations, why advertise?
-they won't walk through,
-greater cost-lesser experience
-they won't learn from having gone through the gate.
imo, from prairie experience...
edzard
jeepster
Original Author
19 years ago
Sounds good, I do plan to have it open into an expanse of prairie.

thanx again edzard

Evolution of the Gate?

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